Telecommunication service providers typically provide and charge for various services to end users (also referred to as subscribers). Examples of voice services are voice calls, call forwarding, call waiting, etc. Examples of data services are messaging, web-browsing, streaming audio/video, Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), online gaming, etc. The data services are managed by a packet core network, which interfaces a subscriber's user equipment (UE) with an external Packet Data Network (PDN), such as the Internet. Some examples of packet core networks include a General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) core network, an Evolved Packet Core (EPC) of a Long Term Evolution (LTE) network, etc. UE's, such as cell phones, personal data assistants, smart phones, notebook computers, or other end user devices may access the data services over the telecommunication service provider networks over an air interface with one or more base stations.
Telecommunication service providers determine charges for services using offline and online charging functions to keep track of resource usages by the subscriber's user device for various services provided to the subscriber. The 3GPP/3GPP2 standards groups have defined a set of specifications that may be used to implement online charging systems and offline charging systems in the various network domains (e.g., a circuit-switched domain, a packet-switched domain, and/or a wireless domain), IP multimedia subsystems, and emerging 3G/OMA application services.
Offline charging provides the basis for post-paid billing, where subscribers are charged at the end of their billing cycle according to their usage. Various network elements (NEs) with an integrated Charging Trigger Function (CTF) provide the inputs to a charging data function (CDF) during subscriber sessions. These inputs are provided via ACRs (Accounting Requests) using Diameter protocol (RFC 3588, 6733). Diameter ACRs are used for both session-related and event-related charging/accounting.
With the advent of Internet of Things (IoT), there has been an explosion in the number of serviceable devices. In machine-type communications (MTC), a number of devices can be serviced via a group-based message. MTC applications generally involve a group of devices and typical applications can involve more than 1000 endpoints for a single subscription. Group-based messaging can efficiently distribute the same message (e.g. a trigger request) to specific MTC group members that fulfill a selection criterion, such as being located within a specific geographical area.
One example of group-based communication is the use of a cell broadcast service as specified in the 3GPP standards. The Cell Broadcast Service (CBS) architecture is specified in 3GPP TS 23.041 and is typically used as a Public Warning System (PWS) to provide for emergency services (e.g., weather alerts, amber alerts, etc.) to subscribers in a geographical area. As PWS services are free, the use of the CBS architecture does not require charging considerations.
However, the CBS architecture (e.g., as implemented by the Cell Broadcast Center (CBC) network element) may also be used for commercial group-messaging, such as for Commercial Mobile Alert Service (CMAS). Besides MTC, group-based communication via CBS can also be used to provide other commercial message broadcasting services, such as enabling a subscriber to transmit a group-message to a group of subscribers that are selected based on desired set of static and dynamic criteria. For service providers that may desire to use the CBS architecture to provide commercial services such as CMAS, systems and methods that provide a flexible mechanism for charging for such services using different types of criteria are desirable.